Audience Prize-winner at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (2013), accomplished young English tenor Ben Johnson lends his dulcet tones to a programme featuring a bouquet of ballads from the British Isles. This song form enjoyed extraordinary popularity in private homes throughout the Victorian, Edwardian and Modern eras, inspiring generations of talented composers – men and women – to marry words and music in a delightful variety of styles.

Presenting the major singers of today and the stars of tomorrow, the Rosenblatt Recitals are London's only world-class season of opera recitals.

Classical Music

Marv Johnson - You Got What It Takes: The Complete Singles & Albums 1958-62 / This collection offers a comprehensive overview of his early years, as well as an entertaining showcase for his distinctive talent. The R&B singer and songwriter Marv Johnson was one of the first artists to be signed to the Tamla by Berry Gordy, although his records came out on United Artists, as the fledgling Motown set-up was not ready to handle him. He continued recording for UA as he racked up a string of hits and recorded several albums before rejoining Motown in the '60s. This 52-track 2-CD collection comprises the A & B sides of his singles on the Kudo and United Artists labels from this era, plus the titles from his albums "Marvelous Marv Johnson", "More Marv Johnson" and "I Believe" not otherwise released on singles. It features all his chart entries from these years, including the pop and R&B Top 10 hits "You Got What It Takes" and "I Love The Way You Love" and his other pop and R&B hits "Come To Me", "I'm Coming Home", "Ain't Gonna Be That Way", "All The Love I've Got", "You've Got To) Move Two Mountains", "Happy Days" and "Merry-Go-Round". He was a versatile song stylist, with his records encompassing the spectrum of pop and R&B styles, and also taking in gospel-flavoured material on the "I Believe" album, and this collection offers a comprehensive overview of his early years, as well as an entertaining showcase for his distinctive talent.

Although most widely remembered for his operettas in partnership with W.S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan was the most famous of all British composers of the nineteenth century. He was revered as a composer of oratorios, and was urged by Queen Victoria to compose a grand opera. The result, Ivanhoe, achieved 155 consecutive performances (in an opera house especially built for it). Achieving equal success in his lifetime, his substantial legacy of songs fell into neglect in the twentieth century, but as this album demonstrates Sullivan's endlessly fertile melodic gifts withstand comparison with those of any other song composer. David Owen Norris and his quartet of outstanding young British singers deliver this fascinating programme with terrific style and panache.

Like Korngold, Toch, Schoenberg, Zeisl and Zemlinsky, Richard Stöhr (1874–1967) was another Austrian composer driven into American exile by the Nazis. His generous output of music, being rediscovered at last in these Toccata Classics recordings, includes seven symphonies, much chamber music, songs, and choral and piano pieces. These chamber works, from his first years in the United States, show him in surprisingly relaxed mood, the Viennese lyricism of his native city maintained in his US refuge. The Flute Suite in particular – though written only four years after his flight from Vienna – can boast a number of easy-going ‘ear-worms’ that linger in the memory long after the music has stopped.

Blind Willie Johnson was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who is widely recognised as having been the leading exponent of what was occasionally called "holy blues" - blues music with religious subject matter that as result could also be termed gospel music, which as a result was highly distinctive and unusual. Born in Texas in 1897, he was blinded by his stepmother during a domestic confrontation when he was seven, and turned to music, performing around his native state from the 1920s through to near his death in 1945, but was active as a recording artist only between 1927 and 1930, recording four sessions in Dallas and one in Atlanta. This 30-track 2-CD collection comprises his complete recordings for Columbia across his career, on occasions accompanied on vocals by his first wife Willie B. Harris. Among the titles it features the highly-acclaimed and influential recordings "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed", "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine", "Mother's Children Have A Hard Time", and "John the Revelator". It's a comprehensive and worthy showcase for a distinctive and unique artist.

This long awaited CD presents over a dozen previously unissued masters of surprisingly high quality from the premier artist on the American Music label, Bunk Johnson. Digital technology made it possible to remove the reasons - often not musical - that they were not issued at the time, seventy years ago. The venues for the recording sessions varied between the legendary 1944 sound of the San Jacinto Hall to the homes of Bertha Gonsoulin in San Francisco and George Lewis in New Orleans. The 16 page booklet includes rare images, a history of the San Jacinto Club and a detailed discography.

This release, James P. Johnson - World Broadcast Recordings ft. Unissued Tracks 1944, represents sessions recorded for the World Broadcasting System (WBS), including previously unissued alternate takes. WBS was a transcription company created in the early years of commercial radio that provided popular contemporary music programming on 16" discs to subscribing radio stations. These nationally syndicated music broadcasts were not commercially available to the public and are unique in this regard. The George H. Buck Jazz foundation formally purchased the World Broadcast Service company in 1969. This historic collection was sourced from existing 16" Acetates, Test Pressings, and World Subscription Discs, and has been beautifully restored. The release is a must for any collection of swing era vocal groups.

Australian jazz from 1934-36 feat. a cavalcade of players led by trumpeter Johnson, inc. Warwick Dyer, Nick Polites, Frank Gow, Bill Tope, Bob Barnard, Jack Connolly, Wes Brown, Peter Cleaver, Tony Jackson +.

Here's a World Transcription session of Bunk's plus his only recordings with a fella they called Satchmo! Those live tracks join a 1938 Saturday Night Swing Club broadcast; Fats Waller, Jack Teagarden and Sidney Bechet play too as you hear I Got Rhythm; Jeepers Creepers; Tiger Rag; Basin Street Blues; Panama; Goodbye, and more.

RARE & UNISSUED MASTERS VOLUME TWO

12 songs recorded in 1942 by Gene Williams for the Jazz Information label, which was part of Commodore at the time, plus two very different takes of Big Chief Battle Axe and Franklin Street Blues that were recorded for Purist Records in England. Some of the finest work this New Orleans jazz legend ever did!

with all-star aggregate incl.. Omer Simeon, Edmond Hall+, 1947, 20tracks.

Many never heard before treats are contained here, like "I Don't Want to Be Without You Baby", as well as Bunk playing waltzes & standards, feat. Don Ewell, George Lewis, Jim Robinson, Alcide Pavageau, Baby Dodds +.

Bunk Johnson-tpt and his band, includes nine previously unreleased tracks.

Bunk's band recording at San Jacinto Hall.

W. G. Lewis, Baby Dodd's + Myrtle Jones vocals, some prev. Unissued New Orleans 1944.

Texan Blind Willie Johnson was one of the most successful recording artists in the South in the late 1920s, before the Depression ruined the company for which he recorded. This collection demonstrates the singer's unique ability to express his personal poetic style through the genre of religious song.

Singing and begging are about the only two ways a blind man can make a living in farm country. Several years after Blind Willie Johnson's death in 1949, Samuel B. Charters tries to get to know the now-distinguished African-American blues and spiritual vocalist/guitarist through those closest to him, including Johnson's wife Angeline. The album combines old recordings, interviews and commentary.

Now in his 90s, this enduring Chicago blues great entered the studio to create his first album in a decade-and it's on Delmark, for whom he first recorded 40 years ago! His Delmark homecoming blends his originals with takes on some classics: "I Need You So Bad," "My Ring," "Lead Me On," "Love Me or Leave Me," "Rattlesnake" and more blues with that trademark Jimmy Johnson R&B flavor. Delmark.

Vinyl LP pressing. Pressed to vinyl for the first time with redesigned artwork, this 20-track live double LP collection captured At New York Town Hall 1947 is filled with a set of players from all over the jazz, folk, and blues communities. A great listen for any collector, the historic Bunk Johnson and Leadbelly commandeered summit features artists like Omer Simeon, Jimmy Archey, Ralph Sutton, Freddie Moore, and many more. Sounding better than ever, the lively recordings were remastered especially for the format by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering.

Prev. On Columbia Records, but now w. two alternates added from digitally restored masters.

Chicago tenor sax great Eddie Johnson passed away on April 7, 2010 at the age of 89. This 1999 session was recorded at the tail end of his last active period in a long professional career that went back to the 40's. Eddie led the Jazz Masters for six years at Alexander's Steakhouse on Chicago's south side so the band was ready for the date. With Chicago piano legend John Young, bassist Eddie de Haas and drummer George Hughes. Jazz Masters trumpeter Paul Serrano did not participate as musician but was the recording/mixing engineer. A wonderful straight-ahead jazz CD with ten songs including the Duke Ellington title track, "Gravy Waltz", "Eyes of Love", "My Buddy". (Previously deleted:7/1/07. Original release date:6/8/98)

Brought in the new sound of blues in the 80's, w Johnson-guitar & voc, Carl Snyder-piano.